Not That Different
by Aileen-Snape
Summary: One-shot. Boy!Blaise ZabiniHermione Granger. Two people find that they're really not as different as they first thought. One goes searching for something better before realizing that everything she wanted was what she already had.


_Title: Not That Different_

_Disclaimer: I own nothing. JK Rowling owns everything Harry Potter and Collin Raye recorded the song of which I'm sort of using. It's called 'Not That Different' off the Greatest Hits album and the only lyrics within the story are from the chorus, but if you've heard the song you'll see the similarities._

_Author's Note: It's Post-Hogwarts._

_&&&&_

_It was a romantic setting, Hermione noticed once she walked into the villa with the view of the ocean from most of its windows. There were candles everywhere, soft music in the background and about a dozen red roses floating in the air._

"_M' amore." A soft voice greeted from the opposite doorway causing the brunette witch to turn around._

_There standing before her, leaning against the doorframe, was a handsome wizard wearing a deep blue, button up shirt that fit his slender frame flattering rather than faultfinding and black cotton slacks. His hair was loose, falling into his eyes, as he preferred to keep the silky strands short and slightly curly._

"_Hello luv." Hermione greeted back. She was dressed in a pale pink sundress that fell to her knees, had tie spaghetti straps and hugged her figure as if it were made for her. Her light brown colored hair was still slightly bushy but it was more manageable than in her Hogwarts days._

_The wizard smiled softly at her holding out his delicate, long fingers that worked wonders with the potions he developed. Smiling softly she joined his side and together they walked towards the open patio where a candlelight table was._

_Hermione allowed her wizard to pull out the chair for her before he took his seat across from her. The meal appeared as if he'd taken lessens from Hogwarts. "You look lovely, Hermione."_

"_Thank you." She blushed lightly. Even after three years together, he still had that ability to make her blush as he did when they first got together. "I don't know what to say, everything's perfect."_

"_You don't need to say anything." He assured her. They ate talking about different things, but nothing to somber like. The evening past with comfortable ease until he knelt down in front of her. "Hermione, words cannot express how much you mean to me." He began. "Will you marry me?"_

_Hermione looking into his honest eyes before saying, "I...I'm sorry Blaise but I don't think that I can marry you."_

"_Why not?" He asked brushing his fingers through his curly black locks._

_Hermione stood letting go of Blaise's hand and moving away. "We're from two separate worlds." She said after a long pause._

"_But we've got so much in common, Hermione." Blaise insisted taking a hold of her hands._

"_It's just not enough anymore." Hermione sighed. "I feel that there's something missing."_

"_Don't do this, Hermione, you know we're perfect for each other." Blaise stated trying to establish eye contact with her._

"_I'd better go." She said softly. "I'm leaving tomorrow for a mission for the Ministry and I won't be back for a while."_

"_So you're just going to leave this?" He gestured. "Without talking about us?"_

"_Good-bye Blaise." Hermione said kissing his cheek before disapparating from the villa to the flat she shared with Pansy and Ginny. The three girls became really good friends especially since Pansy and Ron were currently engaged._

_Hermione quickly finished packing her things for the mission to the United States under the guidance of ambassador's assistant. She then changed for bed before crawling under the silky sheets that Blaise had gotten her for a new house gift. They were a deep wine color with a hint of champagne color around the borders._

_The following morning there was an owl perched on her windowsill waiting for her to open her window. Slowly she opened the window, recognizing Blaise's owl Zeus, and allowed the owl in._

_Finding the familiar script of Blaise's she opened the letter carefully. All she found on the sheet of parchment was the words,_

'_I laugh, I love, I hope, I try, I hurt, I need, I fear, I cry, and I know you do the same things too. So we're really not that different, me and you.'_

_Hermione closed her eyes before placing the note to the side. Grabbing a scrap piece she wrote,_

'_Good-bye, Blaise.'_

"_Take this to Blaise, Zeus." Hermione requested and the owl hooted its agreement before flying out the window. Hermione then dressed in a navy blue skirt that fell to her calves, white button up shirt and blue jacket that all went below her Ministry robes._

_She then put her shoes on, grabbing her suitcase and exiting her room. She walked towards the doorway to put her bag down so that she could grab it on her way out. She then backtracked to the kitchen to get a mug of coffee that Ginny had made earlier._

_Ginny was a medi-witch working at St. Mungo's for the early morning shift with Neville Longbottom. She worked from 4 am to around 4 pm coming home completely exhausted but content. Pansy worked as an auror, Harry was the Seeker on Puddlemere United with Oliver Wood and Ron worked in the Sports and Games department of the Ministry._

_Once finished with the mug she rinsed it off. She pulled out a sheet of parchment and wrote a note to her roommates. She told them that her half of the rent was in an envelope in her desk with a charm on it so that it could only be used for the rent. She then wrote that she'd be back in six months at most and that she'd write them everyday._

_Once done, she placed it on the refrigerator so that they would see it before walking out the front door with her suitcase, purse and wand. Once at the street edge a ministry car pulled up and she climbed in._

_&&&&_

_It was nearly a year later when Hermione returned to the home she had shared with Pansy and Ginny. Though, now it was being rented out to two Wizarding Uni students as Pansy and Ginny were married._

_It had been nice to have a vacation for the two weddings. Pansy and Ron got married just three months after Hermione left and Ginny and Neville four months after that._

_Both times she'd seen Blaise but she avoided him as much as she could. Every time she saw him she thought about what he wrote to her. She missed him, but she couldn't do anything about it. Her job and life was in Salem, Massachusetts with the wizarding ambassador._

_She dated a few times within the nine and a half months she was gone. One of the nicer men was named Marty, who was an auror. The pair deciding it would be better to be friends with benefits because he could tell she still loved the man she left behind and he still loved Mandy._

"_You must be Hermione." One of the roommates stated. "It's nice to finally meet you."_

"_Hello." Hermione greeted putting her things down. She was wearing a pair of Khaki Capri's and a green tank top showing her slightly tanned skin. The ambassador gave her two weeks off in the Bahamas telling her to enjoy her vacation expecting her back at the office by the end of the month._

"_I'm Regina, but I like to be called Reggie and this is Carolyn." Reggie said. She was taller than Hermione by several inches with sandy blond hair and blue eyes. Carolyn was short with dark red hair and hazel green eyes._

"_There's a message on your desk along with the muggle mail." Carolyn said helping the brunette with her things._

"_Thanks for keeping the place neat." Hermione said. "I'm sure Pansy and Ginny told you what a neat freak I am."_

"_They did warn us." Reggie teased._

"_Shall we go out and have some fun tonight?" Carolyn asked._

"_Sounds like fun." Reggie agreed. "Hermione?"_

_Hermione thought about it for a moment before agreeing to the idea. She then jumped into the shower, washing her hair with the shampoo she bought in Salem. Fifteen minutes later, she was out of the shower drying her body and hair with a towel. She'd cut her hair short causing some of the bushiness to a minimize making it look permed then bushy._

_She dressed in a pair of black jeans, and an olive green halter-top with straps that connected at the back of her neck. She blew dried her hair before leaving it down around her shoulders before putting on a pair of strappy sandals and exiting her room to meet with the girls._

_Carolyn was dressed in a pale blue outfit while Reggie was wearing a pair of red leather pants and a black tank top. The three girls left going to the nearest muggle bar, the three of them being muggle-born and knew more about muggle things._

_&&&&_

_It was a few months later when Hermione had the date from hell. The aforementioned date was still back at the restaurant as she had decided on getting away from the jerk. Reggie and Carolyn had made her up, deciding that Hermione being alone was a bad thing and began setting her up on dates._

_She was wearing a pale pink short tiered sleeved shirt that Carolyn loaned her that had a white lace design on the front and a black and pink skirt that Reggie loved because it barely covered her long legs. Her hair was curled and pinned in a more painful fashion, because they'd done it the muggle way as there were no spells for this. It looked nice, Carolyn having streaked her hair a soft blond color that looked very nice with her medium brown colored hair._

_While walking around she realized something. She was still in love with Blaise Zabini, the man she left more than a year ago without so much of a reason for wanting out. When she was little she thought about a fairy tale romance, but the thing with Blaise was normal, as normal as it could be seeing as they were part of a magical world._

_The tears started once she began to feel the pain in her heart. She pulled on the locket, Blaise got her, which she always wore and found the picture of them at Graduation. They'd been Headboy and Girl and found a kindred spirit within the other. But it was the other thing within that locket that she wanted._

'_I laugh, I love, I hope, I try, I hurt, I need, I fear, I cry, and I know you do the same things too. So we're really not that different, me and you.'_

_Without a second thought she found herself outside his villa home and knocked on the door. The rain started to fall and all the 'hard' work Carolyn and Reggie did began to fall as her hair became longer and sticking to her face. The raindrops were mixing with the tearstains on her rosy cheeks._

_The door opened and there stood Blaise Zabini wearing his black and green pajama bottoms and that was pretty much it. His dressing robe was open showing his naturally dark skin and thin frame. "Hermione?" He inquired._

"_I laugh." She began looking in his blue colored eyes with gold flexes. "I love, I hope, I try, I hurt, I need, I fear, I cry." She continued her tears falling harder than before. "And I know you do the same things too. So we're really not that different. No we're really not that different, me and you."_

_Blaise watched her for a moment longer before pulling her into his arms, his life, his home and his heart once more. "Welcome home, m' amore." He whispered holding her as if making sure she wasn't going to disappear on him again._

_The End!!!!!!_


End file.
